Many people have heard the phrase “content is king.” The majority of us just brush that saying off and hardly think of the meaning behind it. But, that phrase holds a lot of power in the digital marketing world. Putting content marketing on the back burner is a lot riskier than investing your time in it. So, what exactly is content marketing?
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing content to your audience that is relevant, consistent, engaging, and valuable to your brand. It’s at the heart of a successful digital marketing campaign, and all the content that is delivered to a target audience with a purpose of reaching a goal. There are as many types of content marketing as there are types of content, meaning any type of content you produce and deliver to your audience in hopes of getting more subscribers, sales, clients, engagements, or any other goal, is considered content marketing. It can consist of blog posts, paid ads, social media posts, graphics, web pages, or podcasts, among other channels. By utilizing content marketing, you should be able to drive customer engagement for your brand in a positive way.
Why is Content Marketing Important for Your Brand?
When content marketing is done correctly, you will be marketing to your customers without interrupting their lives. This can result in more business, support, and loyalty, ultimately improving your brand equity. But how?
It allows you to own media rather than borrow it.
Content marketing allows you to create content that is yours alone. There are thousands of stock images and videos that can be used. However, that prevents you from providing unique content to your viewers. You want to set your brand apart, and in order to do that, creating your own content from blog posts, images, graphics, videos, and more, is vital.
It can improve your reputation by building trust.
It’s important to build trust with your leads and customers. When people read your content, whether that be on your website or social media, they develop opinions about it. Overall, great content will generate positive opinions about your brand, and people will be more likely to come back for more.
It can help influence conversions.
Content marketing provides conversion rates that are six times higher than other digital marketing methods. According to Content Marketing Institute, 61% of online consumers decided to make purchases after reading recommendations on a blog. Content marketing works for influencing conversions because it allows you to provide valuable information to consumers.
It improves your SEO efforts.
As mentioned in a previous blog post, SEO helps increase online visibility of your business. If you want to improve your SEO, you need to deliver consistent and relevant content. According to Neil Patel, content creation is the most effective way to improve your SEO. Websites that post consistent content have more pages indexed in search engines than those that don’t deliver content at all (434% more, to be exact!).
It enhances your social media presence.
Content marketing improves your social media strategy. When you create more content on your website, you have more to promote. Social media is all about promoting you and your brand. According to Social Media Examiner, more than 75% of marketers saw increased traffic by investing as little as six hours per week in social media content. Content marketing for social media is an effective way to build relationships with your following, encouraging them to take action.
It allows you to showcase your expertise.
Consumers likely want to know they are doing business with experts. When you curate content that showcases your knowledge of all the ins and outs of your industry, you are showing leads and customers they can trust you. Consumers want to have peace of mind when they make decisions, and your brand can help give them that.
It helps set you apart from your competitors.
If you want your business to grow and prosper, it’s vital to set yourself apart from your competitors. Content marketing is an effective and essential way that businesses can set themselves apart. As a result, the content you deliver can determine whether a consumer chooses your brand over your competitors.
How you can do it
Above all, content marketing is essential to any successful marketing strategy. Content marketing is all about storytelling, and we all love a good story. So, how does your brand give leads and customers a happy ending?
Your content marketing strategy should highlight your business and customer needs. We’ve talked about what content marketing is and why it’s important for your business. Now, what should you focus on to create an effective content marketing strategy?
Determine your brand’s mission and goals
It’s critical to have a concrete purpose for your business. Do you want to be the most unique and inviting restaurant in Springfield, Missouri? Are you a company focusing on providing all natural hygiene products to promote healthy living? Your goals could be a variety of things from getting subscribers to getting more sales, for example. Once you determine those, you can determine the message you want to deliver.
Know your audience
For a successful content marketing strategy, you need to know who your audience is. This allows you to create the right content to reach them. Website and social media analytics will give you data on who is viewing your content. This is especially important for paid advertising. You have the ability to target certain age groups and other demographics in order to market your business effectively.
Assess your current content standing
Chances are, your business already has some content out there. This includes images, videos, blog posts, social media content, and any other content types that your business has created. It’s important to assess your content’s usefulness to your audience and the success it brings your business. Is your content helping you reach your goals?
Assess your competitors’ content
You can analyze your competitors’ content to get a better understanding of what you are missing out on. Have they covered a specific topic that you haven’t that may be valuable to your customers? Are they posting more frequently? Understanding what your competitors are doing better or worse when it comes to their content can help you create a content marketing strategy that outperforms others.
Determine the best channels
You should have a solid understanding of where your audience is and where you should be publishing your content. By looking at where your competitors are publishing their content, you can get an idea of where you should publish yours. This also gives you the opportunity to get creative. You can take a peek at Google Analytics and see where your content is being looked at and shared the most.
Decide on content types
The types of content you produce rely heavily on the message you want delivered. A restaurant may want to post images of food and posts about upcoming events. A company that provides learning courses may post instructional videos or infographics. It all depends on your business’s mission and the goals you are trying to achieve. Determining the right types of content can take your content marketing strategy to the next level.
Identify and allocate resources
It’s critical to make sure you have everything you need to deliver your content effectively. For instance, who is in charge of making sure content is being published accurately and consistently? What tools and resources will you need to make sure your content is being created and published? If you plan to publish valuable blog content, ads, and videos, you will need to make sure you have a dedicated individual or team to create this content.
Create a content calendar
Lack of planning is a common mistake in content marketing that many businesses make. A thriving social media page can lose many following by not providing content frequently. Consequently, a website’s performance can also take a downturn with a lack of frequent and consistent content. So, it’s important to have a content calendar to make sure you are staying on track.
Create the content
Creating the content is only a piece of the content marketing strategy. There is a lot of prep work in this. So, missing even just a few steps can have a negative impact on your content’s performance. With the process of creating content, you need to think about how this content will reflect your brand’s personality and help you reach your goals.
Distribute and measure results
Utilizing a content calendar, selected content channels, and target audience can help your content deliver amazing results. There are many ways to distribute your content. You can create blog posts for your website, then use that content for a social media post on Facebook, or even distribute via email marketing. Measuring the success of your content marketing strategy can help you determine if you’re achieving your goals. Doing this frequently allows you to tweak your content marketing strategy when needed.
QCM Agency Can Help You Create Your Content Marketing Strategy
QCM Agency has experts in content marketing and know how to turn clients’ visions and goals into a reality. We are storytellers with an emphasis on digital charisma. We can work with you on your content marketing strategy, or take it on completely. Follow QCM Agency for more on the latest and greatest digital marketing trends!
